Xhul'horac (Hellfire Citadel) Strategy Guide

Xhul'horac (Hellfire Citadel) Strategy GuideXhul'horacXhul'horac is the second boss of the Destructor's Rise wing of Cittadella del Fuoco Infernale LFR in 6.2 Warlords of Draenor. On Normal and higher difficulties, players can access Xhul'horac from the Nexus of Souls, by travelling east toward the Felborne Breach.

This Cittadella del Fuoco Infernale raid strategy guide provides an overview of killing Xhul'horac for raid leaders as well as specific tips for tanks, healers, and dps. It also includes information on harmful trash, and screenshots of harmful abilities.

This guide provides information on the boss on all difficulties--LFR, Normal, Heroic, and Mythic.

This boss is accessible on August 10th on LFR difficulty, as part of the Destructor's Rise wing.

If you are looking for general advice on how to play your character better, check out our Class Guides. Looking to log a fight and improve your performance? Go to Warcraft Logs for logs, advanced fight analysis, replays, and more!

We also have a series of Quick Tips guides for Melee DPS, Ranged DPS, Healers and Tanks! These guides don't give you an in-depth discussion of every strategy and every ability, they just give you what you need to know to get through the encounter largely unscathed.

Xhul'horac Encounter Mechanics

The Xhul'horac encounter is a complicated, multi-phase fight that requires extremely high raid awareness and frequent target-swapping to destroy high-priority, low-health adds. The general flow of the fight is:

<20% health: Xhul'horac is affected by Caos Soverchiante and continues to phase quickly between Fel and Void Powers, but no longer summons any adds

Unleashed Energies

Shadowfel AnnihilationThroughout the fight, Xhul'horac swaps frequently between dealing Fire and Shadow damage. These two magics are at odds with one another, and players who take damage from both schools of magic in quick succession will cause powerful explosions. Players must avoid this by monitoring their debuffs and dodging as much avoidable damage as possible.

When a player takes Fire damage from any source, they gain a Toccato dal Vile debuff for 15 seconds

When a player takes Shadow damage from any source, they gain a Toccato dal Vuoto debuff for 15 seconds

Phase 1: The Legion's Flame

Fel Surge targetXhul'horac begins the encounter empowered by Fel energies, as denoted by the Fel coloration of his wings and body. While empowered by Fel energies, Xhul'horac attacks the tank with Vilassalto, dealing heavy Fire damage and inflicting Toccato dal Vile on the tank.

When Xhul'horac reaches 95% health, he will begin to drain energy from the nearby Fel Portal, gaining Vilscarica.

Vilcatene targets a random player and chains them to their two nearest allies

Vilcatene deals periodic damage, increased by the number of other players you are chained to

To break the Vilcatene effect, affected players must run far apart from one another

Damage dealt to Vanguard Akkelion will be copied to Xhul'horac, and damage dealt to Xhul'horac will be copied to Vanguard Akkelion. Because Vanguard Akkelion has a health pool equal to 25% of Xhul'horac's health pool, players will kill Vanguard Akkelion and end the Fel phase with Xhul'horac at 65% health.Return to Table of Contents

Damage dealt to Omnus will be copied to Xhul'horac, and damage dealt to Xhul'horac will be copied to Omnus. Because Omnus has a health pool equal to 25% of Xhul'horac's health pool, players will kill Omnus and end the Void phase with Xhul'horac at 35% health.

Note that, since the Fel Portal is still open during this phase, Wild Pyromaniacs will continue to spawn, and players must continue to stun, interrupt, and kill them quickly to avoid Vilsfera damage.

Note that players can strategically place these patches to create Annientamento di Vilombras and clear additional space for the raid to move into

During this phase, both the Void and the Fel Portals remain open, so Wild Pyromaniacs and Unstable Voidfiends will continue to spawn. Players must still prioritize these adds over the boss.Return to Table of Contents

Phase 4: Tearing Apart

When Xhul'horac reaches 20% health, he will fully absorb the energy of the Fel and Void Portals, closing them. No more Wild Pyromaniacs or Unstable Voidfiends will spawn for the remainder of the encounter.

Overwhelming Chaos damages the raid every 10 secondsDuring this phase, Xhul'horac continues to swap frantically between Void and Fel abilities, just as in Phase 3. Tanks must continue to swap for Vilassalto or Assalto del Vuoto, and players must continue to run out of the raid with Vilscarica or Eruzione del Vuoto.

However, Xhul'horac becomes destabilized by the full power of both portals, and gains Caos Soverchiante.

Xhul'horac will erupt with heavy Chaos damage every 10 seconds for the remainder of the fight

Each time he does so, he will gain a stack of Caos Soverchiante, increasing the damage he deals by 10% per stack

This mechanic acts as a soft enrage; players must defeat Xhul'horac before his abilities become fatal

When to use Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp

When to use Legendary Ring Effects

It is unclear how the DPS legendary ring effect will function with the duplicated damage dealt while Vanguard Akkelion or Omnus are alive. Players should use the ring to assist in burning through these adds quickly, and be sure that it is available during the Brama di Sangue/Eroismo/Distorsione Temporale use in the final phase of the encounter.

The tank legendary ring effect should be used to survive the heavy tank damage that occurs when Vanguard Akkelion is using Vortice di Vilfiamma, when Omnus is channeling Sguardo Indebolente, or during the extremely high tank damage of phases 3 and 4.

Looking For Raid Difficulty

In Looking For Raid difficulty, the Wild Pyromaniacs and Unstable Voidfiends do not spawn, which significantly reduces the amount of coordination required to complete the encounter.

Mythic Difficulty

On Mythic difficulty, instead of waiting for Vanguard Akkelion to die before activating the Void Portal, Xhul'horac will begin activating the Void Portal upon reaching 85% health. Upon reaching 80% health, Xhul'horac summons Omnus, and players must contend with both Vanguard Akkelion's and Omnus's abilities, as well as Vilassalto and Assalto del Vuoto on the tanks, and Vilscarica and Eruzione del Vuoto on the raid.

Xhul'horac, Vanguard Akkelion, and Omnus still copy all damage taken to one another, and the adds have 40% as much health as Xhul'horac himself does. This means that players must deal with both Vanguard Akkelion and Omnus until Vanguard Akkelion dies, at which point Xhul'horac will have 50% health remaining. Omnus will have 25% health remaining, and when players have defeated Omnus, Xhul'horac will be at 40% health.

Once Xhul'horac opens the Void Portal, the fight becomes very challenging, and plays out like an extended-length, increased-difficulty version of the Phase 3 mechanics from the Heroic encounter.

One tank must become dedicated to Fel mechanics, tanking Vanguard Akkelion and taunting Xhul'horac for each Vilassalto

The other tank must become dedicated to Void mechanics, taunting Xhul'horac for each Assalto del Vuoto, and picking up Omnus when he spawns

If either tank accidentally takes damage from a mechanic of the opposing school, a Annientamento di Vilombra will trigger and probably wipe the raid

Both Wild Pyromaniacs and Unstable Voidfiends will spawn, and players must do everything possible to avoid taking damage from either of these adds' mechanics

Xhul'horac can be tanked in the center of the room, with Vilscarica being run out to one side and Eruzione del Vuoto being run out to the other. Players should focus on killing the small adds as quickly as possible.

Commento di whyzzim

Edit:You need to have a warlock summon infernal on top of that pillar and a rogue to shadowstep it, then have every non-tanks suicide and mass rez on the top.

Don't use anything that can summon a pet, else adds will spawn. And that is easy mode. During the last 30% you need to use some healing cds to counter the aoe.

Edit: Seems to be fixed.

Commento di whyzzim

Someone found another bug point. Hope this be fixed soon.

Commento di sunfirehawk2010

I want to report, as of the opening of the Destructor's Rise Wing in LFR, Wild Pyromancers and Unstable Voidfiends do, in fact, spawn in LFR mode. Maybe it is a bug... because we ended up wiping 5 times and barely made it on the 6th try... in LFR... sad day...

Commento di stormeh

For newer groups, it's a godsend to have a rogue with burst of speed talent, can just zoom around the room spamming feint and clear all the patches while others just focus on dps.